Play Dough Patterns and Textures Activity.
Kids will love experimenting and discovering all the interesting textures and imprints they can make with this easy playdough patterns and textures activity.
This easy playdough activity is a great way to work on fine motor skills, while also experimenting with cause and effect. It’s a great opportunity to introduce lots of new descriptive language as you talk about each imprint, a fun and easy sensory activity too!
This sensory activity is quick and easy to set up and the kids will love looking for interesting items to imprint into the play dough.
Easy Playdough Texture and Pattern Activity
Supplies:
- playdough (homemade playdough or store bought)
- rolling pin
- found items with interesting patterns and textures
I got my kids to go exploring and see what items they could find that would make interesting patterns in the playdough. They came back with lots of natural items (shells, gumnuts and seed pods) as well as some plastic toys with interesting textures and some glass gems.
You could also Legos or Duplos, bubble wrap, beads, or recycled containers with interesting patterns of textures, or anything you can find!
How To.
Start by rolling out some dough on a flat surface. Younger children may need some help to roll out the dough., and if you are setting this up as an invitation to play in a classroom setting it’s great to have the playdough ready rolled as the children arrive.
Keep the dough nice and thick so there is room to press down into it.
Now the children can experiment by pressing different items into the play dough to see what sorts of patterns, textures and imprints they make.
You can fill the rolled out dough with one layer of impressions, then squish it up and start again, or you can make several layers of imprints.
Tips and Extension Ideas.
- Encourage your kids to feel the textured items first, describe how they feel, and predict what pattern they might leave in the dough.
- Use lots of descriptive language as your children explore, such as ‘rough’ ‘bumpy’ ‘grooves’ ‘imprints’ ‘deep’ ‘shallow’ etc.
- Invite your kids to roll circular items over the dough to see what happens, and experiment by using different sides of objects to make different imprints.
- Invite your kids to look for and identify shapes in the imprints.
- Extend the activity by asking the kids to make repeating patterns with the imprints.
- Extend the activity by inviting kids to make pictures using the imprinted patterns.
- Vary the activity by using stamps and ink on white playdough.
This simple playdough activity will have your kids looking at every day items in a new way, thinking about their texture and all the different ways something can be used.
More Easy Playdough Ideas
If you are looking for more fun playdough ideas try one of these:
- Another fun twist on the usual playdough activity is these fun, free printable people playdough mats.
- This building blocks and playdough activity is always a huge hit with kids!
- Stamping on play dough is another unusual activity to try.
- For lots more easy ideas you’ll love this huge list of playdough activities.
lavender oil and glitter :)
I’ve been using playdough to teach my kids about combination colours. The other day we made orange playdough. One boy was in charge of the yellow food dye and the other the red, they each had to add and mix until we got orange. We’ve also done purple, and experimented with red vs. pink.
Beautiful photos! Love the jewels and shells!
I’m the one usually making patterns and prints when we play with playdough. I love to see what we can stick in the dough. I love the different elements you used.
We love playdough! Here’s 50 things to use with playdough…. http://www.examiner.com/attachment-parenting-in-mankato/50-fun-things-to-use-with-play-dough Some of our favorites are garlic presses, rubber stamps, cupcake toppers, spaghetti…. too many to list! :)